In Me and Banksy, Tanya Lloyd Kyi bites off a lot--cyberbullying, the trade-off between security and privacy, the artist's role in society--but no more than she can chew, and no more than readers can digest.
The middle schoolers at Mitchell Academy are uneasy when, in the putative interest of student safety, the administration introduces some changes: indoor security cameras and ID tags that the kids must scan to enter the building. The students' skepticism is borne out when embarrassing videos of kids and faculty show up on the forum for the school's PixSnappy account. When a video is posted showing eighth grader Dominica Rivers alone in the library taking a moment to right-side-out an inside-out shirt, she and her friends vow to uncover who is sending the files. Dominica finds solace in her head counsel of sorts: Banksy, the real-life anonymous British street artist whose work highlights social justice matters. As it happens, Mitchell Academy has an open house coming up; why take to the streets like Banksy when Dominica can take to the school corridors?
Despite all the book's capital-I Issues, Kyi, who has written nonfiction as well as fiction for kids and young adults, doesn't skimp on narrator Dominica's personal life. In both face-to-face dialogues and text exchanges, Dominica and her besties discuss their family dramas and romantic foibles ("What is it with you and Miranda, hmmmm????"). Me and Banksy may be preoccupied with the day's technological toys, but it puts in the foreground a timeless concern: teen angst. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author